To Do List After installing Ubuntu 12.04 LTS aka Precise Pangolin

Supported until April 2017
Ubuntu is designed primarily for use on personal computers, although a
server edition also exists. Ubuntu holds an estimated global usage of
more than 12 million desktop users, making it the most popular desktop
Linux distribution with about 50% of Linux desktop marketshare. It is
fourth most popular on web servers, though its popularity is increasing
rapidly. There is nothing more exciting than being the master of your
own computer, and with Ubuntu Linux you will make yourself more
knowledgeable and have more skills when it comes to computing than other
OS users. No more viruses, and no more spyware/malware. This guide was
created primarily to help new Ubuntu users transition quickly over from
other operating systems, but is just as useful to even very experienced
Linux users. When you are done installing everything on this list
hopefully you will have everything you would probably find on other
comparable commercially available operating systems. There was a
step-by-step list written for Fedora many many years ago when I was
first starting out learning about Linux OS and was the concept for this
guide, and I always found this to be best way to do fresh installations
of Linux on my own computers.
Ubuntu is sponsored by the UK-based company Canonical Ltd. Canonical generates revenue by selling technical support
and services related to Ubuntu, while the operating system itself is
entirely free of charge, if you get really stuck at some point, it would
probably make more sense to use paid commercially available technical
support if you run into trouble installing Ubuntu OS than using a free
how-to list, like this one.
Here is a nice user guide: “Ubuntu: An Absolute Beginners Guide“For more specific information:http://wiki.ubuntu.com/PrecisePangolin/Download Ubuntu 12.04 LTS:

Existing Ubuntu users can install Unetbootin (or use
Startup Disc Creator) from the repositories, and use that application
to migrate the above downloaded image to a USB Flash Drive or USB Thumb
Drive and afterwards you can boot from your USB drive, or you can burn
it to a disc with Brasero, or K3b, and boot from your CD/DVD drive
instead. USB is much faster than CDs or DVDs when it comes to
installation time, and less chance of data corruption.Existing Mac users can use these instructions on how to install Ubuntu for the first time: http://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookExisting Windows users can use these instructions on
how to install Ubuntu for the first time if you are new to Ubuntu
Linux. Avoid using Wubi. I recommend using a USB Flash Thumb Drive to install Ubuntu (select option 2 on the page of the following link to learn how):http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download
Make sure you use the drop down tab and select Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. When
you have your ubuntu.iso downloaded, and installed onto a USB Flash
Thumb Drive, you will need to boot your computer from the USB Flash Drive. When you turn on your computer there should be an option at the bottom of your screen to allow you to change the boot order
or you may need to select BIOS settings to boot from your USB port
first, instead of your HDD. You can change it back to the default when
you are done installing Ubuntu. You will need to have your newly created
Ubuntu installation USB inserted in your USB port when the computer is
booting up. If this is your first time using Ubuntu on your computer,
please make sure that you throughly test everything with your Live
Ubuntu USB drive to make sure everything still works on your computer
before installing it to your hard drive.Special Note: If you have a hard drive (non-SSD
drive only) that you need to have magnetically shredded because you are
giving your computer to someone else make sure to use “Secure Erase”
application within the Parted Magic boot disc. It will overwrite
everything, even sectors marked as bad. The Parted Magic live linux CD
has a GUI interface to run Secure Erase, and it makes shredding very
simple for even new users to Linux OS. If you have an SSD drive that you
need to have shredded, make sure to use the disc that came from the
factory since SSD are usually encrypted. Here is where you can download
Parted Magic iso image to burn onto a blank cd-r/dvd-r disc:http://partedmagic.comInstallation of Ubuntu:
Make sure you select and place checkmarks next to “Download updates
while installing”, and “Install this third-party software” on the
following screen. (Recommended)You
can either select to repartition your entire hard drive for Ubuntu, or
you want to keep your existing Windows OS installation, and you can
select a side-by-side installation.Since
there have been issues with the video card drivers in Ubuntu 12.04 you
probably would want to leave the Log in automatically deselected and
change it to “Require my password to log in”, and that way you can
switch your session to Ubuntu 2D in case your video drivers have
problems in 12.04. (Recommended)Now
that you hopefully have Ubuntu installed on your computer, here is how
to use this To-do List Tutorial if you are new to using Ubuntu Linux
(click the gear icon to switch to HD video):
If you rebooted your computer after installing and your computer
fails to start correctly you can try to fix grub bootloader with the
following program called Boot-Repair.Boot-Repair is a simple tool to repair frequent boot
issues you may encounter in Ubuntu like when you can’t boot Ubuntu
after installing Windows or another Linux distribution, or when you
can’t boot Windows after installing Ubuntu, or when GRUB is not
displayed anymore, some upgrades breaks GRUB, etc.
Boot-Repair lets you fix these issues with a simple click, which
(generally reinstalls GRUB and) restores access to the operating systems
you had installed before the issue.http://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-RepairBut hopefully, if all went well, you should now be logged into your Ubuntu 12.04 desktop at this point.
Special Note: If your desktop seems to be running slow, you can
switch your session to Ubuntu 2D by logging out, and clicking the little
gear looking icon next to where you enter in your password, and click
on the gear to change your session to Ubuntu 2D instead and re-login
again to save your changes.
They have done a terrific job updating the Ubuntu Classic “Fallback”
Desktop Environment in Ubuntu 12.04 for those who don’t really like
Unity, and still long for the original Gnome 2.* Desktop look and feel.
To install Gnome Fallback session DE (see screenshot at the top of this
article), you will need to install “gnome-session-fallback” package
using Ubuntu Software Center, Synaptic Package Manager (which no longer
comes installed by default either in 12.04).
Why switch from Unity Desktop Environment to something else?http://www.datamation.com/…/7-reasons-to-like-and-dislike-ubuntu-unity-1.html
What is Classic Ubuntu “Fallback” Desktop Environment (click the gear icon to switch to HD video):
To install Classic Ubuntu “Fallback” Desktop Environment:

Then log out and select “GNOME Classic” at the LightDM login screen.
You need to click on the the little-gear-looking-icon next to where you
type your password to change your session to Ubuntu Classic “Fallback”
session. And Gnome 3.x Desktop Themes can be added with gnome-tweak-tool.Ubuntu 12.04 (Gnome 2 Fork) Mate Desktop Environment
Unhappy with Unity? Want your old Gnome 2 desktop back? Just when you thought Gnome 2 was gone forever. It’s back!
More info here: http://mate-desktop.org/How to install older Gnome 2 clone “Mate” Desktop Environment in 12.04:

Then log out and select “MATE” at the LightDM login screen. You need
to click on the the little-gear-looking-icon next to where you type your
password to change your session to Mate session.How to install the latest Gnome 3 Desktop Environment:
If you want to use the latest released Gnome 3 Desktop Environment you
can use the following tutorial to get Gnome 3 completely installed in
Ubuntu 12.04 (see screenshot at the top of this article):http://debianhelp.wordpress.com/2011/10/07/how-to-install-gnome-3-desktop-environment-in-ubuntu-11-10/

Lubuntu (LXDE) 12.04 Desktop Environment

Lubuntu is a lightweight Linux operating system based on Ubuntu but
using the LXDE desktop environment in place of Ubuntu’s Unity shell and
GNOME desktop. LXDE is touted as being “lighter, less resource hungry
and more energy-efficient”. Lubuntu received official recognition as a
formal member of the Ubuntu family on 11 May 2011, commencing with
Lubuntu 11.10, released October 13th 2011. If you really want something
more like Gnome 2 was in Ubuntu, I can suggest trying Lubuntu as a nice
slim retro alternative, copy and paste into Terminal:

Now log out and select “Lubuntu” at the LightDM login screen. You
need to click on the the little gear looking icon next to where you type
your password to switch your session to Lubuntu.Express Post-Installation Bash Script for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

If you have Ubuntu 12.04 freshly installed, and you have completely
updated your system and rebooted your system (make sure to bookmark this
web site first):

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo reboot

And if you have a broadband hardwired connection to the
Internet (WiFi would take forever to download all the packages), you can
use the following python script file to install most of the ‘recommended’
packages you will need on your system that are found on the rest of
this walk-through guide. You can skip this python script file if you
prefer to install everything manually instead. It is experimental, so
if you have any doubts about using a python script, you can move on to
the following steps in this guide to install everything you want
individually.
Estimated Time of Installation: 30-45 minutes depending on your bandwidth.Download Post-Installation Python Script:

Now you need to choose which CPU architecture your Ubuntu OS is running. It will be either 32-bit or 64-bit Ubuntu.For 32-bit Ubuntu 12.04 LTS:

sudo ./ubuntu-12.04-postinstall.py -c mycfg32.cfg

For 64-bit Ubuntu 12.04 LTS:

sudo ./ubuntu-12.04-postinstall.py -c mycfg64.cfg

Important: Keep in mind that it is going to take a
while to install everything. Make some coffee. Watch some TV and relax
while it does most of the work on this do-to list. Try to avoid using
your computer until is it completely done. Make sure to reboot your
computer and check for any further software updates after you reboot
your system.Special Note: You will still need to manually
install your 3rd party proprietary drivers, software like Google Earth,
and configuring your firewall settings separately in the rest of this
guide below.Enable Partner and Independent Repositories in Ubuntu Software Center (Prerequisite and Requirement) :
Open Ubuntu Software Center and select “Edit” and then select “Software Sources”:Make
sure both Canonical Partner repositories have check marks next to them
and make sure it looks something like this and click close:
If you receive any update errors regarding your cdrom install disc
make sure to go back to the previous “other software” and leave them
disabled, and then update your system.
Now open up Terminal and copy and paste (afterwards reboot your
system and repeat this step until no further updates are found – do not
proceed until done here):

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Adobe Flash Player(Prerequisite and Required)
is a cross-platform, browser-based application runtime that provides
uncompromising viewing of expressive applications, content, and videos
across browsers and operating systems. Flash Player 10.3 delivers
beautiful HD video, faster graphics rendering, and high performance on
mobile devices and personal computers and is designed to take advantage
of native device capabilities — enabling richer, more impressive user
experiences.
Open Terminal and copy and paste this:

Special Note for Nvidia video users:
Don’t use Nvidia video cards if at all possible! I have had nothing but
problems with Nvidia graphics on Ubuntu 12.04 since the latest rollout.
I have no idea why they don’t work. Best suggestion would be be switch
to a different video graphics card, like ATI or Intel. An example of
what’s wrong is, Ubuntu 3D effects are for some strange reason enabled
by default in Ubuntu 12.04 after a fresh installation of Ubuntu 12.04
LTS. That means, if you have an Nvidia graphics adapter installed on
your MB you are going to have a frozen screen or worse immediately after
you install Ubuntu 12.04 and if you also selected autologin during the
installation process, your video will freeze up. You will need to change
your session from Ubuntu 3D to Ubuntu 2D session (somehow with a frozen
screen?). Login again normally, run jockey, and when the window with
the drivers appears (see above), click on the line that says post-release updates and version-current updates. And
click activate. Restart your computer. But guess what you still aren’t
done because the latest driver updates for Nvidia don’t work either
(yet? will ever?) So guess what? Then you need to go down to the next
step and install the ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates below.
However, you may restart your computer somewhere in the process and
will be dropped to the command line during bootup eventually
(probably?).. I was hoping that they would have this issue fixed by now
since it has been a while since 12.04 was released, however the problem
still remains for some Nvidia graphics users. If you have a desktop PC
it simply means you need to purchase a different video card that is
non-Nvidia. ATI is fine as well as Intel Graphics. Tested both with
12.04 and no issues yet. I have given up on Nvidia and 12.04 at this
point. I love their prices for video cards, but your Linux support sucks
right now Nvidia. I wish that wasn’t the case. The problem also exists
for pure Debian as well so this isn’t just an Ubuntu Nvidia problem. For
more on the subject check out this video from the creator of Linux on this same subject to see what he thinks about it. lolIf you are having video issues in general, make sure your video card is supported in Ubuntu:http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/linux-display-ia32-270.41.19-driver-uk.htmlhttp://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Legacy/Pages/radeon_linux.aspxhttp://intellinuxgraphics.org/index.html
If you are running a Nvidia video graphics adapter, and you are still
having issues (which wouldn’t surprise anybody at this point), here is
how you can install the very latest Nvidia drivers if you dare.Open your Terminal, copy and paste (this one works for me the best):

And then reboot your system.
If you have a desktop computer with on-board video, use that instead
of any ATI PCI graphics cards for now or buy a supported Nvidia graphics
card from the list in the link above. They are usually inexpensive on
Ebay for a decent Nvidia card to upgrade your system.
If you do have an ATI graphics card, and would like to use it (Recommended!):How-to install ATI Catalyst Video Drivers (RECOMMENDED!):
You need to download either the 32-bit x86 version or the 64-bit
version that corresponds to your CPU architecture. ATI Radeon HD PCIe
cards work great and usually cost around 40-50 US Dollars. That would be
my recommendation if you have a desktop computer with a PCIe graphics
card slot.Go to amd.com and download your driver
Copy and paste in terminal (32-bit Systems only):

Above, I am assuming that you are using Ubuntu 12.04. If you’re using
another version, use that version’s name, for example Ubuntu/maverick

sudo dpkg -i *.deb
sudo aticonfig --initial -f

Now reboot and it should be working. If not, you may want to research more here.Disable any devices in BIOS you do not intend on ever using (recommended):
If you don’t have any plans on using your internal Wi-Fi now would
also be a good time to disable it from within BIOS to keep anyone with a
Wi-Fi sniffer from gaining access to your system. Depending on the BIOS
capabilities of your system you may also be able to disable Bluetooth
as well, if you know for a fact that you will not be needing it and
preventing anyone with a Bluetooth sniffer from gaining access to your
system. (These are only a personal recommendation if you want greater
security…)How-to access your BIOS settings: http://www.techbusy.org/tutorial/how-to-enter-in-bios-setup-in-pc/Adding Medibuntu Package Repository (Prerequisite and Requirement)Medibuntu repository provides all the playback and
encoding capabilities that most Windows and Mac systems contain, but
which Ubuntu’s creators decline to include by default in their systems,
due to licensing restrictions and a lack of open-source code for those
features. If you just want to get AAC playback, copyright DVDs playing,
and newer versions of all the audio, video, and font files, load
Medibuntu into your system. (Required)
Open your Terminal, copy and paste:

Samba is no longer installed by default apparently
in Ubuntu 12.04 so if you need to share files over the local network you
will need to install a few packages. Afterwards lookup “Personal File
Sharing” and it should be ready to configure and run. And don’t forget
to leave the proper port open when you configure GUFW/UFW firewall
settings. After you install the packages listed here you will need to
also power cycle/reboot your system.How to Share Files over the Network:

sudo apt-get install samba smbfs system-config-samba

Ubuntu Tweak
This tool is for Ubuntu which makes it easy to change hidden system and desktop settings. Ubuntu Tweak is only for Unity Desktop Environment.It
has a large pre-configured list of repositories that can be installed
with just a few mouse clicks, and makes new users feel more comfortable
configuring their newly installed Ubuntu without too much trouble or
knowledge of command line instructions.
Open your Terminal, copy and paste:

Terminator is a GPL terminal emulator. It is available on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and other Unix X11 systems.
Terminator will run on any modern POSIX system with Java 5 or later.
Open your Terminal, copy and paste:

sudo apt-get install terminator

For how to use Terminator terminal utility check out:http://ubuntumanual.org/posts/285/make-your-work-easy-using-terminatorUncomplicated Firewall (UFW & GUFW) is a
firewall that is designed to be easy to use. It uses a command line
interface consisting of a small number of simple commands, and uses
iptables. iptables is already a very powerful tool by itself, but it’s
syntax can get awkward at times and hard to figure out, so Ubuntu
developers decided to make ufw (“The reason ufw was developed is that we
wanted to create a server-level firewall utility that was a little bit
more for `human beings`.”), which was to be simpler. Now, on the
graphical side of things, Firestarter already existed. But why not make
an even easier to use GUI for desktop `human beings`, powered by ufw?
This is where GUFW comes in.
Open your Terminal, copy and paste:

sudo apt-get install gufw
gufw

If you would like to simply use UFW from the command line, you can try any of these commands to make changes to your firewall.To check your current settings:

It will automatically load these settings from now on. If you need to
access one of those ports temporarily, then you can open up sudo gufw
and disable your firewall momentarily. Just don’t forget to re-enable it
when you are done.
Here is a configuration script if you are running a server:

For more information:http://www.frozentux.net/documents/iptables-tutorial/Anti-Virus
Windows equivalent : AVG AntiVirus, NAV, TrendMicro, F-Prot, Kaspersky, …
Ubuntu equivalent : ClamAV, BitDefenderClamAV
Clam Anti-virus (ClamAV) is a free, cross-platform anti-virus
software tool-kit able to detect many types of malicious software,
including viruses. One of its main uses is on mail servers as a
server-side email virus scanner. The application was developed for Unix
and has third party versions available for AIX, BSD, HP-UX, Linux, Mac
OS X, OpenVMS, OSF (Tru64) and Solaris. As of version 0.96 ClamAV builds
and runs on Microsoft Windows. Both ClamAV and its updates are made
available free of charge.
Open your Terminal, copy and paste:

sudo apt-get install clamav clamtk

BitDefender
BitDefender is an anti-virus software suite developed by
Romania-based software company Softwin. It was launched in November
2001, and is currently in its thirteenth version. The 2011 version was
launched in August 2010, and it includes several protection and
performance enhancements as Search Advisor and Performance Optimizer.
The thing I love about BitDefender is it will run in the task-bar after
start-up and has a resident shield that is always monitoring your system
for any potential threats, not that viruses normally target Linux
operating systems however.
First you need to get a free scanner key here via email.Copy and paste in Terminal:

gksu synaptic

Select “Settings” and then select “Repositories”, and then click
the “Other Software” Tab, and click ‘Add’ and copy and paste this repository:

deb http://download.bitdefender.com/repos/deb/ bitdefender non-free

Click on ‘Close’ and press ‘Reload’ when prompted. Ignore the ‘No
repository key’ error (if displayed). To add the repository key open a
Terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal) and copy+paste
the following lines::

To install the graphical interface and command line program copy+paste the following line:

sudo apt-get install bitdefender-scanner-gui
sudo reboot

Once completely installed then you will need to reboot your system. A
menu shortcut will be generated (Applications -> System Tools ->
BitDefender Scanner). And you will need to enter in the free scanner key you received via email.
Before running the scanner it’s probably best to install the latest virus/malware signatures by clicking on the ‘Update’ button.Special Note:Troubleshooting BitDefender Scanner Engine Crashing
Some users are reporting that BitDefender crashes right after the
scanning engine is initialized. In order to fix this error you will need
to copy and paste this into terminal:

As of April 2012 they still do not have this fixed in BitDefender
yet. Hopefully someone will let them know by posting a message to their
support forum? Thanks.
For further BitDefender support please visit:http://forum.bitdefender.comEssential tools for compiling from sources.
There are times when you need to compile software from sources, maybe
because you need to compile the package with some specific option that
is not enabled in the default package, or maybe the software application
you wish to install isn’t available in any of your repositories. When
you begin the installation process you will come to a window that will
require you to accept the EULA to install, and you will need to click on
your key to select and press enter. (Here is a guide on how to compile software from source) and here are the required packages you need in order to compile sources in Ubuntu:

Multimedia (Prerequisite and Required)
Windows equivalent : windows media player, real player, vlc, mplayer, media codecs
Ubuntu equivalent : vlc, mplayer, fluendo media codecs
Unfortunately, many audio and video formats won’t work “out of the box” with Ubuntu, or most Linux distros.MPlayer is a movie player that plays most MPEG, VOB,
AVI, OGG/OGM, VIVO, ASF/WMA/WMV, QT/MOV/MP4, FLI, RM, NuppelVideo,
yuv4mpeg, FILM, RoQ, and PVA files. You can also use it to watch VCDs,
SVCDs, DVDs, 3ivx, RealMedia, and DivX movies. It supports a wide range
of output drivers including X11, XVideo, DGA, OpenGL, SVGAlib, fbdev,
AAlib, DirectFB etc. There are also nice antialiased shaded subtitles
and OSD.VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia
player and multimedia framework capable of reading most audio and video
formats as well as DVDs, Audio CDs VCDs, and various streaming
protocols. It can also be used as a media converter or a server to
stream in uni-cast or multi-cast in IPv4 or IPv6 on networks.
Open your Terminal, copy and paste:

SMPlayer intends to be a complete front-end for
MPlayer, from basic features like playing videos, DVDs, and VCDs to more
advanced features like support for MPlayer filters and more. One of the
most interesting features of SMPlayer: it remembers the settings of all
files you play. So you start to watch a movie but you have to leave.
Don’t worry, when you open that movie again it will resume at the same
point you left it, and with the same settings: audio track, subtitles,
and volume. This is really great for watching DVD movies.

sudo apt-get install smplayer

FFMpeg is a complete and free Internet live audio
and video broadcasting solution for Linux/Unix. It also includes a
digital VCR. It can encode in real time in many formats including MPEG1
audio and video, MPEG4, h263, ac3, asf, avi, real, mjpeg, and flash.
Open your Terminal, copy and paste:

Check and see if you can now view DVD movie discs on your computer.
If not you may need to set the region key and you are usually allowed to
do this only 5 times (only use if needed, and very optional):

sudo apt-get install regionset
sudo regionset

Or you can purchase the proprietary codecs from your Software Center:
VLC blu-ray libraries:http://vlc-bluray.whoknowsmy.name/
orhttp://vlc-aacs.whoknowsmy.name/
…to get VLC 2.0 to play encrypted blu-ray discs.Internet Web Browsers:
Here are some highly recommended add-ons for Firefox:Adblock Plus (plugin)(Recommended)
Adblock Plus (ABP) is a content-filtering extension for Mozilla Firefox (including Firefox for mobile) and Google Chrome web browsers. ABP,
a forked version of Adblock, allows users to prevent page elements,
such as advertisements, from being downloaded and displayed. Very
popular, and almost what I would consider to be a necessity, if you surf
the Internet on a daily basis. Works great with sites like youtube.com
and other similar web sites that bombard you with constant commercials.
It will also allow you to import preconfigured blocklists to stop
tracker web sites from monitoring your browser presence.Password Exporter (plugin)
This extension allows you to export your saved passwords and disabled
login hosts using XML or CSV files that can be imported later. Very
helpful when needing to re-install Ubuntu onto a new system or migrating
your data and personal information.NetVideoHunter (plugin)
NetVideoHunter is a Firefox add-on (extension), and you can easily
download videos and audio from almost all audio and video streaming web
pages with two clicks. Tested and considered to be probably the best
plugin out of all the other similar plugins available for this kind of
task.HTTPS Everywhere (plugin)
HTTPS Everywhere is a Firefox and Chrome extension that encrypts your
communications with many major websites, making your browsing more
secure.Dictionaries & Language Packs (plugin)

The Java Runtime Environment (OpenJDK) (Prerequisite and Required)
provides the libraries, the Java Virtual Machine, and other components
to run applets and applications written in the Java programming
language.
Copy and paste into your terminal:

sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jre icedtea-7-plugin

Test your browser to make sure your Java is installed and working properly here:http://www.java.com/en/download/testjava.jsp(optional!)
Or if you know for a absolute fact that you will absolutely be needing
the actual original Sun Java 7 JDK (not openjdk-7-jre above), for
playing Minecraft, and other websites that -must- use Sun Java, copy and
paste in your terminal (this will take some time to completely
download):

Then use “update-alternatives –config” commands to set what java that will be used.
(The “update-alternatives –config” commands below can also be done
with the GUI-tool “galternatives” if it is installed on your system.)

My recommendation is always to use openjdk-7-jre from the Ubuntu
repositories whenever you need to use Java, but if at this point you are
still having trouble trying to install Java and geting Java to work
correctly on your Ubuntu system, please visit the following web site for
further support:http://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/java
And if nothing else works for you then you can try:

Flash Aid Plugin For Firefox (optional, in case your flash video playback has issues)“Remove conflicting flash plugins from Ubuntu/Debian Linux
systems, install the appropriate version according to system
architecture and apply some tweaks to improve performance and fix common
issues.”Flash Aid Plugin
Click ‘Add to Firefox’ to download and install it.
After installing the add-on and restarting Firefox, a new icon will be added to your Firefox browser Navigation Toolbar.When
clicking the toolbar icon, a menu pops up displaying the features
available. Click the Flash Aid icon, and click next to complete the
installation. Afterwards test your flash video playback ability by
visiting youtube or some other flash video web site, to check your
performance.How to change your privacy settings on Ubuntu 12.04 (Recommended):
Open up the Software Center and install “Activity Log Manager” if
your system doesn’t come installed by default with Privacy options. Or
you can cut and paste this in Terminal:

If you are using Fallback DE, it is located in System Settings.How to change your Startup Application Manager settings on Ubuntu 12.04 :
Starting with Ubuntu 12.04 the ‘Startup Applications’ manager now
only displays a sub-set of applications to control at startup with the
remaining applications being hidden. To make the hidden applications
visible in the manager, follow these steps:
Copy and paste the following command into Terminal:

An
archive format is the file format of an archive file. The archive
format is determined by the file archiver. Some archive formats are
well-defined by their authors and have become conventions supported by
multiple vendors and/or open-source communities.

Also, don’t forget to check to see if there is an upgrade for Opera:http://www.opera.com/download/Chromium
is the open source web browser project from which Google Chrome draws
its source code. The project’s hourly Chromium snapshots appear
essentially similar to the latest builds of Google Chrome aside from the
omission of certain Google additions, most noticeable among them:
Google’s branding, auto-update mechanism, click-through licensing terms,
usage-tracking, a built-in PDF viewer and bundling of the Adobe Flash
Player. Chromium uses the WebKit layout engine.

Google Chrome
is a web browser developed by Google that uses the WebKit layout
engine. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on
September 2, 2008, and the public stable release was on December 11,
2008. It uses its own flash plugin to play flash video/audio. The name
is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or “chrome”, of web
browsers. As of June 2011, Chrome was the third most widely used browser
with 20.65% worldwide usage share of web browsers, according to
StatCounter.

Google Chrome Plugins:Adblock Plus (plugin) (Recommended)
Adblock Plus (ABP) is a content-filtering extension for Google Chrome web browsers. ABP,
a forked version of Adblock, allows users to prevent page elements,
such as advertisements, from being downloaded and displayed. Very
popular, and almost what I would consider to be a necessity, if you surf
the Internet on a daily basis. Works great with sites like youtube.com
and other similar web sites that bombard you with constant commercials.
It will also allow you to import preconfigured blocklists to stop
tracker web sites from monitoring your browser presence.Remote Desktop (plugin)
Access other computers or allow another user to access your computer securely over the Internet.HTTPS Everywhere (plugin)
HTTPS Everywhere is a Firefox and Chrome extension that encrypts your
communications with many major websites, making your browsing more
secure.Google Talk is a browser plugin that lets you voice
and video chat with friends and family from your browser. Install this
plugin and logon to Gmail with your webcam and microphone attached to
your computer, then initiate a chat with a friend or family member. It
will try to connect to your webcam and enable video chat.

Download Manager
Windows equivalent : Free download manager
Ubuntu equivalent : MultigetMultiGet is an easy-to-use and open source file
download manager for Windows. It supports HTTP/FTP protocols which
covers the requirements of most users. The download accelerator supports
multi-task with multi-thread on multi-server. It supports resuming
downloads if the Web server supports it, and if you like, you can
reconfigure the thread number without stopping the current task. It’s
also support SOCKS 4, 4a, 5 proxy, ftp proxy, http proxy. MultiGet also
supports switching language dynamically; you can choose English,
Chinese, and German. Plus this it will automatically choose a proper
language for you.

sudo apt-get install multiget

Access it through Applications → Internet → MultiGet .Graphical Email clientThunderbird
Windows: Outlook, Outlook Express
Despite perceptions to the contrary, the desktop-based e-mail client
is not dead. Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0 is a serious reaction to the
prevalence of Web mail, so whether you’re looking for a strong desktop
client, an Outlook replacement, or a powerful tool for managing archives
and Web mail offline, Thunderbird can scale to your needs.
Outlook users will notice the speed and responsiveness of the
program, which loads quickly, even when weighed down by multiple folders
and RSS feeds, and the basic feature set remains intact: good junk mail
filters, HTML support, multiple identities, and robust Web mail, POP,
IMAP, and Microsoft Exchange server support. Security features include
S/MIME, digital signing, message encryption, and a built-in phishing
detector. Add-ons, based on the same code as Firefox’s add-on network,
can enhance your security even further. Thunderbird is now installed by
default and replaces evolution as the default mail client in 12.04.

This changes the output format to Recursive. This will create folders
as named in the PST file, and will put all emails in a file called
“mbox” inside each folder. These files are then compatible with all
mbox-compatible email clients. Then just import the mbox file into
Thunderbird and you should be all good.Instant Messanging protocal clients
Windows equivalent : MSN messenger, Trillian, Yahoo messenger, QQ, AIM, Gtalk, ICQ,IRC
Ubuntu equivalent : Empathy, Pidgin, EmeseneEmpathy is an instant messaging client which
supports text, voice, video, file transfers, and inter-application
communication over various IM protocols. Empathy is installed by default
on Ubuntu, however you may want to make sure you have the latest
updated version.

Access it through Applications → Internet → Emesene .Gmail NotificationCheckgmail
If you would like to get notified when you have a new mail in your google mail account, checkgmail is for you.
To install Checkgmail type the following command in the Terminal Window.

sudo apt-get install checkgmail

Now you can launch it from Application → Internet → CheckGmailVOIP
Windows equivalent : Skype
Ubuntu equivalent : Skype, Jitsi, BrosixSkype is a software application that allows users to
make voice and video calls and chats over the Internet. Calls to other
users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional
landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a
debit-based user account system. Skype has also become popular for its
additional features which include instant messaging, file transfer, and
video conferencing.You can download the latest verison of Skype for Ubuntu here:http://www.skype.com/intl/en/get-skype/on-your-computer/linux/
If you are upgrading from the older version to the above new version
of Skype there is something you will need to do first before you can
upgrade to Skype 4.0.
In terminal, copy and paste:

sudo apt-get purge skype
sudo apt-get autoremove

Now you can install the downloaded Skype 4.0.x installation package
from that link above in your Ubuntu software center or you can use Gdebi
package installer.
Hardware acceleration and WebGL also feature in this release but are not turned on by default. Head intoopera:config to enable it.
Other new features include:

Webcam support

Support for the Do Not Track header

CSS3 Animations and Transitions

Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (Cors) Support

Improved language support

Skype
has 663 million registered users as of 2010. The network is operated by
Skype Limited, which has its headquarters in Luxembourg. Most of the
development team and 44% of the overall employees of Skype are situated
in the offices of Tallinn and Tartu, Estonia. It was purchased by
Microsoft in the Summer of 2011. Here is the older version:

sudo apt-get install skype

Access it through Applications → Internet → Skype
Some webcams work perfect with Cheese and other webcam applications,
but in Skype you may have a green screen, no picture at all or the
picture is upside down!
If you have webcam issues with skype, fix this by doing this:

And make sure to check with Skype’s Download page in case there is a new Beta release available at:http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/get-skype/on-your-computer/linuxJitsi (formerly SIP Communicator) is a VoIP,
videoconferencing, and instant messaging application for Windows, Linux
and Mac OS X. It supports several popular instant messaging and
telephony protocols.
Download your Ubuntu debian (*.deb) installation packages at either:http://jitsi.org or http://download.jitsi.org/jitsi/debian/Brosix Enterprise Instant Messenger is a secured
instant messenger that is designed to help business users find a secure
way to connect to one another quickly. It uses encrypted communications
in order to secure messages in a manner that is similar to secure email
services. Video chat just like Skype, and even LogMeIn-like features.
To download and install, copy and paste in Terminal:

For more information about Brosix and support: http://www.brosix.com/Viewing PDF files (Recommended)
Windows equivalent : Adobe Reader
Ubuntu equivalent : Adobe ReaderAdobe Reader enables users to view and print PDF
files but doesn’t have PDF creation capabilities. Acrobat and Reader are
widely used as a way to present information with a fixed layout similar
to a paper publication (when you get to the EULA prompt press Tab key)
and make sure to install medibuntu repository at the beginning of this
guide at the top:

sudo apt-get install acroread acroread-fonts

ScrubIt Public DNS profiles several million websites
and by default block out any pornographic, phishing, and many other
potentially harmful sites. It is a free open DNS for content filtering,
and highly recommended if you have kids using your home network.You
can add it to your Static DNS entries in your hardware WiFi router
configuration (recommended if you have never updated your router before:
you can try calling the tech support company that made your router to
help guide you throuh the process for updating your router’s “LAN” DNS
settings. Just tell them you want to add a public DNS 67.138.54.100 and
207.225.209.66 to be used by all the computers on your network) or if
you aren’t using a router on your individual Ubuntu system, you can
update your DNS like this:

sudo gedit /etc/resolv.conf

Write down your existing ISP nameserver IP addresses in case you want
to change it back later on. And then modify those ISP nameserver
entries as to the pubic DNS ScrubIt entries:

nameserver 67.138.54.100
nameserver 207.225.209.66

Click on Save, and reboot your system.
The best way to update your DNS nameserver is to change your wifi
router configuration. Just call tech support for your make and model
router (the manufacturers tech support phone number) and ask them to
walk you through the process to update your DNS nameserver configuration
for your router box. It should normally be free of charge to call for
support for your make and model router box. Make sure you put a good
password on your router box when you are done. And never let your kids
have administrative accounts
on Ubuntu. Always create new users without superuser rights too. Only
you, the superuser should be able to change any of the system network
settings from within Ubuntu OS.
Here is a walkthrough to set up the same kind of parental blocking service but with OpenDNS instead:http://www.liberiangeek.net/2012/01/enable-parental-control-in-ubuntu-11-10-precise-ocelot-with-opendns/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LiberianGeek+%28Liberian+Geek%29Simple Yet Advanced Text Editor
Windows equivalent : Notepad ++
Ubuntu equivalent : GEdit, GeanyGEdit

sudo apt-get install gedit gedit-plugins gedit-developer-plugins

Geany
Geany is a text editor using the GTK2 toolkit with basic features of an integrated development environment.
It was developed to provide a small and fast IDE, which has only a
few dependencies from other packages. It supports many filetypes and has
some nice features.

sudo apt-get install geany geany-plugins

LibreOffice (the new Openoffice.org replacement) Recommended
Windows equivalent : Microsoft Office Suite
Ubuntu equivalent : LibreOffice 3 Suite
LibreOffice is a free software office suite developed by The Document
Foundation as a fork of OpenOffice.org. It is compatible with other
major office suites, including Microsoft Office, and available on a
variety of platforms. Its developers’ goal is to produce a
vendor-independent office suite with ODF support and without any
copyright assignment requirements. The name is a hybrid word with the
first part Libre, which means free (as in freedom) in French and
Spanish, and the English word Office.
LibreOffice comes preinstalled by default, but you still want to
double check that you have everything else here installed as well. Java
isn’t installed by default so go ahead and copy and paste this into
your terminal. The PPA line is optional, but you should double check to
make sure you have everything else here installed on your system.To install LibreOffice 2.8 PPA:

http://extensions.libreoffice.org/extension-centerGWoffice (Google Web Office)
is an application that lets you access Google Drive and its content
directly from your desktop in Ubuntu. It supports HUD, drop and drag to
upload documents, and offline synchronization. GWoffice comes with a
clean and nice GTK theme that integrates well with Ubuntu. Although it
only works with office documents, spreadsheets, and presentation files,
it’s nice to have if you want to sync your Google documents in Ubuntu.

Scribus is an desktop open source page layout
program with the aim of producing commercial grade output in PDF and
Postscript, primarily, though not exclusively for Linux.While
the goals of the program are for ease of use and simple easy to
understand tools, Scribus offers support for professional publishing
features, such as CMYK color, easy PDF creation, Encapsulated Postscript
import/export and creation of color separations.

sudo apt-get install scribus

AbiWord is a free and open source software word
processor. It was originally started by SourceGear Corporation as the
first part of a proposed AbiSuite. Development stopped when SourceGear
changed their focus to Internet appliances. AbiWord was adopted by some
open source developers and AbiWord continued to be developed. AbiWord
supports both basic word processing features such as lists, indents and
character formats, and more sophisticated features including tables,
styles, page headers and footers, footnotes, templates, multiple views,
page columns, spell checking, and grammar checking. Starting with
version 2.8.0, AbiWord includes a collaboration plugin that allows
integration with AbiCollab.net, a Web-based service that permits
multiple users to work on the same document in real time, in full
synchronization.

sudo apt-get install abiword

Graphical FTP clients
Windows equivalent : CuteFTP, SmartFTP, CoreFTP
Ubuntu equivalent : FileZillaFileZilla is free, open source, cross-platform
FTP/SFTP software, consisting of FileZilla Client and FileZilla Server.
Binaries are available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. It supports
FTP, SFTP, and FTPS (FTP over SSL/TLS). As of 18 April 2011, FileZilla
Client was the 7th most popular download of all time from
SourceForge.net.
This is great FTP client, very complete, in my opinion, and the best one around.To install FileZilla in terminal:

Access it through Applications → Internet → FileZilla FTP Client.Development IDE
Windows equivalent : Dreamweaver
Ubuntu equivalent : Kompozer, NetbeansKompoZer is an open source WYSIWYG HTML editor based
on a rewritten version of the now-discontinued Nvu editor. KompoZer is
maintained as a community-driven fork and is a project on Sourceforge.
KompoZer’s WYSIWYG editing capabilities are one of the main
attractions of the software. In addition, KompoZer allows direct code
editing as well as a split code-graphic view:

sudo apt-get install kompozer

Access it through Applications → Internet → KompozerKomodo Edit inherits many features of the commercial
Komodo IDE, such as a full range of supported languages (including
Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Tcl, SQL, Smarty, CSS, HTML and XML) and
tri-platform support (Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows ). But if you are
looking for an open-source editor I would also suggest Eclipse IDE in
Ubuntu repositories.Like
Komodo IDE, Komodo Edit can edit remote files over FTP and supports
user customization through plugins and macros. It was developed for
programmers who need a multi-language editor with broad functionality,
but not the features of an IDE, like debugging, DOM viewer, interactive
shells, and source code control integration. However, independent
implementations of some of these features are available in the free
version through the plugin system as of January 2011.
Windows: Notepad++
In terminal, copy and paste (for 64-bit systems):

When prompted to specify the directory or folder to install into, type this command:

/opt/Komodo-Edit-7/

After installing, run this command in your terminal to complete the process.

export PATH="/opt/Komodo-Edit-7/bin:$PATH"

NetBeans
The NetBeans platform allows applications to be developed from a set
of modular software components called modules. Applications based on the
NetBeans platform (including the NetBeans IDE) can be extended by third
party developers.

sudo apt-get install netbeans

Image Editors
Windows equivalent : Adobe Photoshop
Ubuntu equivalent : GIMPBasic GIMP
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free software raster
graphics editor. It is primarily employed as an image retouching and
editing tool and is freely available in versions tailored for most
popular operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X,
and GNU/Linux. It has layering abilities like Photoshop.
In addition to detailed image retouching and free-form drawing, GIMP
can accomplish essential image editing tasks such as resizing, editing,
and cropping photos, photomontages combining multiple images, and
converting between different image formats. GIMP can also be used to
create basic animated images in the GIF format.
New additions in Gimp 2.8 are single window mode, on-canvas text
editing, layers group, and to apply all changes to a layer grouping. You
will need to install the PPA to upgrade to Gimp 2.8 below.GIMP’s
product vision is that GIMP is, or will become, a free software
high-end graphics application for the editing and creation of original
images, icons, graphical elements of web pages and art for user
interface elements.

Access it through Applications → Graphics → GIMP Image Editor.
Download additional Script-Fu filters and tweaks:
Instructions on how to install Scripts that work in Gimp 2.8:http://www.gimphelp.org/script28.shtmlGIMP Paint Studio
GIMP Paint Studio (GPS) is a package with a collection of brushes and
accompanying tool presets for GIMP aimed at improving the capabilities
in drawing and painting using GIMP. GPS provides a wide range of tools
for graphic designers and digital artists: different shadowing pencil
brushes (graphite, 2B, 6B, etc), pen brushes (BIC pen, sketching pen),
oil brushes and other presets for airbrushing, using the ink tool,
smudging, etc.To add the PPA and install GIMP Paint Studio in Ubuntu
(install GIMP first), use the following commands on the terminal (this
PPA might not be available yet in 12.04):

Access it through Applications → Graphics → Inkscape Vector Graphics Editor.Photo Management
Windows equivalent: Aftershot Pro, Lightroom, Bridge, Photoshop OrganizerRAW file viewers/editors/plugins for SLR Digital Photography
Not the most intuitive program to use at first, Raw Therapee
is a fairly feature rich and comprehensive RAW editor that’s compatible
with Linux. At the time of writing, the team are working on a stable
release of version 3.0, which is a major release for the
project. Unidentified Flying RAW (or UFRaw for short) is a dedicated RAW
image editor based on GTK+. It can be used as an application on its own
or as a plugin for GIMP (simply open a RAW image in GIMP to be
presented with the UFRaw editor window).

For more raw file utilities visit: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-great-tools-editing-raw-photos-linux/Darktable
is an open source photography workflow application and RAW developer. A
virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers. It manages your
digital negatives in a database, lets you view them through a zoomable
lighttable and enables you to develop raw images and enhance them. It
focuses on the workflow to make it easier for the photographer to
quickly handle the thousands of images a day of shooting can produce.
It’s also one of the very few FOSS projects able to do tethered
shooting.

Shotwell
can import photos and videos from a digital camera directly. Shotwell
automatically groups photos and videos by date, and supports tagging.
Its image editing features allow users to rotate, crop, eliminate red
eye, and adjust levels and color balance. It also features an auto
“enhance” option that will attempt to guess appropriate levels for the
image. Shotwell allows users to publish their images and videos to
Facebook, Flickr, Picasa Web Albums, Piwigo, and YouTube.

Access it through Applications → Graphics → Blender (windowed).Microsoft Visio
Windows equivalent : Microsoft Visio
Ubuntu equivalent : DiaDia
Dia can be used to draw many different kinds of diagrams and
flowcharts. It has special objects to help draw entity-relationship
models (tedia2sql can be used to create the SQL DDL), Unified Modeling
Language (UML) diagrams, flowcharts, network diagrams, and simple
electrical circuits. It is also possible to add support for new shapes
by writing simple XML files, using a subset of Scalable Vector Graphics
(SVG) to draw the shape.

sudo apt-get install dia

Access it through Applications → Graphics → Dia Diagram EditorGoogle Picasa is an image organizer and image viewer
for organizing and editing digital photos, plus an integrated
photo-sharing website, originally created by a company named Lifescape
(which at that time may have resided at Idealab) in 2002 and owned by
Google since 2004. “Picasa” is a blend of the name of Spanish painter
Pablo Picasso, the phrase mi casa for “my house”, and “pic” for pictures
(personalized art). For Linux, Google has bundled Wine with the Windows
version to create an installation package rather than write a native
Linux version, but this version is severely out of date (the latest
Windows version, however, can be run with Wine; see the Linux section).http://www.ubuntuupdates.org/package/mint_import/maya/import/base/picasa
You will need to either select the 32-bit or 64-bit version according
to the version of Ubuntu you have installed on your computer.Screenlets is the name of both a set of
independently-developed widget applications and the widget engine which
runs them. The engine runs primarily on X11-based compositing window
managers, most notably with Compiz on Linux. Like Google Gadgets for
windows.

P2P Clients / Servers, File Sharing
Windows equivalent : Limewire, utorrent, Azureus, Emule, PeerGuardian
Ubuntu equivalent : Frostwire, Deluge, Azureus, Amule, Moblock/MobloquerBitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol
used for distributing large amounts of data over the Internet.
BitTorrent is one of the most common protocols for transferring large
files, and it has been estimated that it accounted for roughly 43% to
70% of all Internet traffic (depending on geographical location) as of
February 2009.Frostwire
Windows equivalent: Limewire
FrostWire is a free, open source BitTorrent client, first released in
September, 2004, as a fork of LimeWire. It was initially very similar
to LimeWire in appearance and functionality, but developers added more
features, such as BitTorrent support. In version 5, Gnutella support was
dropped entirely, and now FrostWire only uses the BitTorrent network.
Development of the program has been active since the program was first
released in September 2004.Install Frostwire:

Bittorrent Add-ons for Ubuntu:
Windows Equivalent: PeerGuardian (requirement for Bittorent downloading!)
Ubuntu equivalent : Moblock and MobloquerMoBlock is a Linux security application for blocking
connections to and from a specified range of hosts. It is an open
source IP filtering program similar to PeerGuardian for Linux. There are
current plans between Phoenix Labs and MoBlock to make it the official
PeerGuardian for Linux, but they haven’t released an updated
Moblock/Mobloquer installation package for 12.04 yet.
While you are installing Moblock, just accept the default settings
for now. You can change them with Mobloquer after you are done
installing everything.
This will install the moblock “natty” repository because they haven’t
released a moblock for 12.04 yet. Tested in 12.04, and works great.
No issues.To install Moblock in terminal (select the default settings
by using the TAB key and pressing enter – there will be several prompts –
just accept default settings and afterwards you can configure the
blocklists in Mobloquer app):

Make sure to enable your blocklists you want and update Mobloquer after you get it completely installed:The
first thing most users will notice after installing Moblock and have it
running is that their Pidgin/Empathy/IMclientOfChoice stops working.
Mobloquer log will list the IP’s and info about the IP’s, so just
whitelist them if need be with one mouse click. It’s really a very
strong utility and will block pretty much everything until you tell it
to do otherwise.qBittorrent is a multi-platform Bittorrent client
developed in C++/Qt4 by Christopher Dumez. This software is still under
active development and it becomes more and more featureful, while being
already very stable.
Its main features are its integrated search engine (allows searching
for torrent from the main torrent Web sites simultaneously in a
transparent fashion), its support for l’UPnP/NAT-PMP, Bittorrent
protocol encryption (Azureus-compatible), Peer Exchange (PeX) compatible
with µTorrent, IP filtering (eMule-like “ipfilter.dat” or PeerGuardian
filters), Torrents (and the files they contain) prioritizing, remote
control through a secure Web User Interface.
Windows Equivant: µTorrent

Deluge is a full-featured BitTorrent client for
Linux, OS X, Unix and Windows. It uses libtorrent in it’s backend and
features multiple user-interfaces including: GTK+, web and console. It
has been designed using the client server model with a daemon process
that handles all the bittorrent activity.
The Deluge daemon is able to run on headless machines with the user-interfaces being able to connect remotely from any platform.

Access it through Applications → Internet → Deluge Torrent.Azureus: Uses Java to run, very complete but a bit heavy. And has a wide variety of add-ons to choose from too.
Vuze (formerly Azureus) is a P2P file sharing client using the
bittorrent protocol. Search and download torrent files. Play, convert
and transcode videos and music for playing on many devices such as PSP,
TiVo, XBox, PS3, iTunes (iPhone, iPod, Apple TV).

sudo apt-get install azureus

Access it through Applications → Internet → Azureus.µTorrent
is a very tiny BitTorrent client, super fast and ultra light.
µTorrent’s built for speed. That means ultra-efficient downloads of
mega-sized files.
Go to µTorrent official site and download the Ubuntu installation package and use the following instructions to install µTorrent at:http://ubuntuguide.net/install-lightweight-fast-%C2%B5torrent-on-ubuntu-12-04-lts/Amule
aMule is an eMule-like client for the eD2k and Kademlia networks, supporting multiple platforms.Add the launchpad repository :

An integrated Amazon MP3 store. This major feature is the work of our web-entrepreneurs Sven and Justus.

sudo apt-get install amarok

Nuvola Player, Google Music Frame used to be an
application that integrates Google Music in Ubuntu, providing sound menu
support, notifications, multimedia keys and even last.fm scrobbling.
But the application has evolved and the latest development builds work
with Grooveshark.Because
it now supports two music services (more cloud music services might be
added in the future), Google Music Frame has been renamed to “Nuvola
Player”.

Spotify is a Swedish-founded, UK-headquartered
DRM-based music streaming service offering streaming of selected music
from a range of major and independent record labels, including Sony,
EMI, Warner Music Group, and Universal.
Launched in October 2008 by Swedish startup Spotify AB, the service
had approximately ten million users as of 15 September 2010; about 2.5
million of whom were paying members.The service is, as of November 2011,
available in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, France,
the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom
and the United States.

Audacity is a cross-platform multitrack audio
editor. It allows you to record sounds directly or to import files in
various formats and convert audio files into many different audio file
formats too. It features a few simple effects, all of the editing
features you should need, and unlimited undo. This is the first and last
GUI audio editor you will ever need on Ubuntu.The GUI was built with wxWidgets and the audio I/O supports PulseAudio, OSS and ALSA under Linux.

Mixxx is a DJ tool that allows for the playback and
mixing of digital music (MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and Wave). Mixxx will run
on the Linux, Mac OS X and Windows operating systems.
Mixxx has the ability to provide comprehensive support for any MIDI
controller due to its scripting engine, and it ships with mappings for a
number of popular controllers, a complete list of which can be found on
the Hardware Compatibility page.

Airtime
an award-winning open source radio management software, has reached
version 2.1, getting real-time show editing and live stream
rebroadcasting.
Airtime 2.1 allows connecting remotely via tools such as Mixxx or
Virtual DJ and the application will rebroadcast the stream either at a
time you set or in the middle of the broadcast, using a nice transition.Download Airtime (officially supports Ubuntu and Debian, but works on other Linux distributions too)Ardour
is a hard disk recorder and digital audio workstation application. It
runs on Linux, Mac OS X and FreeBSD. Its primary author is Paul Davis,
who is also responsible for the JACK Audio Connection Kit. Ardour’s
intention is to provide digital audio workstation software suitable for
professional use.

sudo apt-get install ardour

bristol
is a vintage synthesiser software emulator suite. The application
consists of an engine itself called bristol and a graphical user
interface called brighton. The graphical interface is a bitmap
manipulation library to present the diverse synth devices such as
potentiometers, buttons, sliders, patch cables and which generates the
messages to configure the synth emulator.The
engine is an infrastructure that hosts the emulator code that couples
together the different audio operators required to generate the audio.
The engine and GUI are started together with the start Bristol script
which sets up the required environment for the two to connect together.
It is not generally envisaged that bristol and brighton be started
outside of the script however there are options to the script to only
start one or the other. Bristol also has a command line interface that can be used rather than the GUI.Audio
drivers are PCM/PCM plug or Jack. Midi drivers are either OSS/ALSA
rawmidi interface, or ALSA SEQ. Multple GUIs can connect to the single
audio engine, which then operates multitimbrally.
Currently the following synthesizers are emulated:http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/precise/man1/bristol.1.html
Download bristol 32-bit or 64-bit deb installation package here:http://www.ubuntuupdates.org/package/core/precise/universe/base/bristol
And then in Terminal copy and paste to install the GUI:

sudo apt-get install monobristol

Special Note: You may need to type monobristol in terminal to start the GUI or you may need to create a launcher for it manually.Amarok
Amarok’s tagline is “Rediscover Your Music”, and its development is
based around this ideology. Amarok’s core features such as the unique
“context browser”, integrated Wikipedia lookup and lyrics download help
users to find new music, and to learn more about the music they have.
Windows equivalent : iTunesAmarok
also features integration with last.fm, giving users suggestions about
what to listen to next and which artists may fit their mood, as well as
with Magnatune integration, allowing no-cost full listening of all the
music in their catalog, and DRM-free purchasing.

sudo apt-get install amarok amarok-common

Access it through Applications → Sound & Video → Amarok.gtkpod
gtkpod is a graphical user interface for the Apple iPod for Unix-like systems, written using the GTK+ toolkit.
Windows equivalent : iTunesThis
application allow you to connect to your ipod, shuffle,
idohickeythingamabob so you can access your music, mp4s, and tranfer
them, copy them, rename them, with Ubuntu or Debian systems. It’s all
kinds of good stuff for apple media users.

sudo apt-get install gtkpod

Programs for CD/DVD burning with GUI
Windows equivalent : Nero, Roxio Easy CD Creator
Ubuntu equivalent : K3b, BraseroK3b (from KDE Burn Baby Burn)
is a CD and DVD authoring application for the KDE desktop environment
for Unix-like computer operating systems. It provides a graphical user
interface to perform most CD/DVD burning tasks like creating an Audio CD
from a set of audio files or copying a CD/DVD, as well as more advanced
tasks such as burning eMoviX CD/DVDs. It can also perform direct
disc-to-disc copies.

sudo apt-get install k3b k3b-data libk3b6

Access it through Applications → Sound & Video → K3B.Brasero is a application to burn CD/DVD for the
Gnome Desktop. It is designed to be as simple as possible and has some
unique features to enable users to create their discs easily and
quickly.

sudo apt-get install brasero

Access it through Applications → Sound & Video → Brasero Disc Burning .Gnac is an easy-to-use audio conversion program for
the GNOME desktop. It is designed to be powerful but simple. It provides
easy audio file conversion between all GStreamer supported audio
formats. This and WinFF I have found to be very handy.

Kdenlive, Kino, Openshot, Pitivi Video Editors
Kdenlive, Kino, Openshot, Avidemux, and Pitivi are intuitive and
powerful multi-track video editors, including some of the most recent
video technologies. Winff is a video/audio converter. With WinFF you can
convert a video from youtube into an MP3 audio file, for example.
Avidemux is good general purpose video editor as well.

WinFF is a GUI for the FFmpeg command line video
converter. It will convert any video file that is supported by FFmpeg.
WinFF processes multiple files in multiple formats at once. You can, for
example, convert mpeg, flv, and mov files into avi videos, all at once.
To install the most recent updated version:

OpenShot Video Editor is open-source, video editing
software package for Linux, built with Python, GTK, and the MLT
Framework. I personally recommend this for video editing.
The project was started in August 2008 by Jonathan Thomas, with the
objective to provide a stable, free, and friendly to use video editor.
For a complete list of features click here. To install the most recent updated version:

Flowblade
is a multitrack non-linear video editor for Linux designed to “provide a
fast, precise and as-simple-as-possible editing experience”. The
application can be used to join or cut videos, create movies from video
clips, audio clips and images, add filters and more.Download Flowblade (.deb and source files available)HandBrake is an open-source program designed to
convert MPEG video (including DVD-Video) into an MPEG-4 video file in
MPEG-4 Part 14 (.mp4) or Matroska (.mkv) containers.
The program is used to convert DVDs into other forms so they can be
viewed on iPods, iPhones and with the Apple QuickTime Player and most
media players.
Originally developed for BeOS, HandBrake is now available for Linux, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.

FfDiaporama is an application for assembling photos
and videos. It is inspired by presentation software such as Impress or
Powerpoint. It can read all image formats, a majority of cameras and
camcorder video formats, and the most commonly used music formats.It
includes 140 transitions and a device database for the generation of
videos with more than 50 models of video viewing devices (including
smartphones, tablets, and home cinema systems). ffDiaporama can manage
several hundreds of slides. Every slide can contain several tens of
shots and several tens of blocks. Every shot contains its own block
settings. The application calculates all the shot transformations.http://ffdiaporama.tuxfamily.org/Kazam is a simple screen recording program that will
capture the content of your screen and record a video file that can be
played by any video player that supports VP8/WebM video format. You are
able to have a mic enabled and background soundtrack too.
Optionally you can record sound from any sound input device that is supported and visible by PulseAudio.

AcidRip is an automated front end for
MPlayer/Mencoder (ripping and encoding DVD tool using mplayer and
mencoder) written in Perl, using Gtk2::Perl for a graphical interface.
Makes encoding a DVD just one button click!You can install it as follows under Debian / Ubuntu Linux:

sudo apt-get install acidrip

dvd::rip is a full featured DVD copy program written
in Perl i.e. fron end for transcode and ffmpeg. It provides an easy to
use but feature-rich Gtk+ GUI to control almost all aspects of the
ripping and transcoding process.It
uses the widely known video processing swissknife transcode and many
other Open Source tools. dvd::rip itself is licensed under GPL / Perl
Artistic License. You can install dvd::rip as follows under Debian /
Ubuntu Linux:

sudo apt-get install dvdrip

K9copy is a KDE DVD Backup tool. It allows the copy
of a DVD9 to a DVD5. It is also known as a Linux DVD shrink. It supports
the following features: The video stream is compressed to make the
video fiton a 4.7GB recordable DVD. DVD Burning. Creation of ISO images.
Choosing which audio and subtitle tracks are copied. Title preview
(video only). The ability to preserve the original menus.

sudo apt-get install k9copy

Hulu Desktop
is a lean-back viewing experience for your personal computer. It
features a sleek new look that’s optimized for use with standard Windows
Media Center remote controls or Apple remote controls, allowing you to
navigate Hulu’s entire library with just six buttons. For users without
remotes, the application is keyboard and mouse-enabled. Hulu Desktop is a
downloadable application and will work on PCs and Macs. It will
initially launch as a beta product during which we plan to gather and
incorporate user feedback to improve the service. The new version
includes both bug fixes and also support for the new Hulu Plus
subscription service.
You can download the deb installation package for your 32-bit or 64-bit version of Ubuntu 12.04 here:http://www.hulu.com/labs/hulu-desktop-linux
After you have download it, you can double-click on the *.deb file
and it should automatically install itself with your Ubuntu Software
Center.TV-MAXE
is an application which provides the ability to watch TV stations and
listen radio via different streams, such is SopCast. Currently it has a
large number of channels, both romanian and international. I tested this
in 12.04 and it is working very good.

FreetuxTV is a Web TV player for Linux that lets you
watch and record free Web TV Channels and listen to Radio. Unlike
Sopcast this works with direct asf/wmv connections/downloads for
streaming media. And the programming lists appear to not be quite as
updated as Sopcast at the moment. The application that runs on VLC as
backend comes with several pre-added channels for many languages. You
will need to open up the required ports on your firewall if it is
enabled.

For support contact: https://code.google.com/p/freetuxtv/XBMC
is an award-winning free and open source (GPL) software media player
and entertainment hub for digital media. XBMC is available for Linux,
OSX, and Windows. Created in 2003 by a group of like minded programmers,
XBMC is a non-profit project run and developed by volunteers located
around the world. More than 50 software developers have contributed to
XBMC, and 100-plus translators have worked to expand its reach, making
it available in more than 30 languages. While XBMC functions very well
as a standard media player application for your computer, it has been
designed to be the perfect companion for your HTPC. Supporting an almost
endless range of remote controls, and combined with its beautiful
interface and powerful skinning engine, XBMC feels very natural to use
from the couch and is the ideal solution for your home theater.

Infra-red remote control support “lirc” can be reconfigured with this command:
sudo dpkg-recondigure lirc
For more information: http://lirc.org/Calibre is a free and open source e-book computer
software that organizes, saves and manages e-books, supporting a variety
of formats. It also supports e-book syncing with a variety of popular
e-book readers. calibre is cross-platform (programmed in Python and C)
and is intended for the three main operating systems, Linux, Mac OS X
and Windows.
Windows: “Kindle for PC” software
Calibre was originally called libprs500, but was renamed calibre
(lower case ‘C’) in mid-2008. calibre is primarily an e-book cataloging
program. It is designed around the concept of the logical book, where a
single database entry corresponds with the same book in a variety of
formats. calibre supports the following formats for cataloging: AZW,
AZW1, CBR, CBZ, CHM, EPUB, FB2, HTML, IMP, LIT, LRF, LRX, MOBI, ODT,
OEBZIP, OPF, PDB, PDF, PML, PMLZ, PRC, RAR, RB, RTF, SNB, TPZ, TXT and
ZIP.

sudo apt-get install calibre

Also make sure to install better smaller fonts:http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/957788-installing-calibri-font/Map Viewing and ManagementGoogle Earth allows you to travel the world through a
virtual globe and view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings,
and much more. With Google Earth’s rich, geographical content, you are
able to experience a more realistic view of the world.Prerequisite: Make sure you have all your media codecs installed listed at the beginning of this tutorial.
And if you are running a 64-bit version of Ubuntu 12.04 then you will also need:

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs

To install Google Earth copy and paste the following command in the Terminal Window.

sudo apt-get install lsb-core

and here is Google Earth 6.2
Latest Upgraded Version:>>Download Google Earth 6.2
Select either:
32 bit .deb (For Debian/Ubuntu)
64 bit .deb (For Debian/Ubuntu)
Depending on your PC architecture and install in Software Center.VMWare Player System Emulator
VMware Player is a freeware virtualization software package from
VMware, Inc.(a company which was formerly a division of and whose
majority shareholder remains EMC Corporation). VMware Player can run
virtual appliances. VMware Player can also create virtual machines since
version 3.0. I personally recommend VMware Player over using Wine to
run Windows Applications in Ubuntu.It
uses the same virtualization core as VMware Workstation, a similar
program with more features, and not free of charge. VMware Player is
available without restriction for personal non-commercial use, or for
distribution or other use by written agreement. It allows you to run all
Windows applications in Ubuntu.How-to Install VMware Player in Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin (Linux Kernel 3.2):http://debianhelp.wordpress.com/2012/06/08/how-to-install-vmware-player-in-ubuntu-12-04Oracle VM VirtualBox is an x86 virtualization
software package, originally created by software company innotek GmbH,
purchased by Sun Microsystems, and now developed by Oracle Corporation
as part of its family of virtualization products. It is installed on an
existing host operating system; within this application, additional
guest operating systems, each known as a Guest OS, can be loaded and
run, each with its own virtual environment.
Supported host operating systems include Linux, Mac OS X, Windows XP,
Windows Vista, Windows 7, Solaris, and OpenSolaris; there is also a
port to FreeBSD (only OSE version). Supported guest operating systems
include versions and derivations of Windows, Linux, BSD, OS/2, Solaris
and others. Since release 3.2.0, VirtualBox also allows limited
virtualization of Mac OS X guests on Apple hardware.
According to 2010 surveys by LinuxJournal.com, and LifeHacker.com,
VirtualBox was the most popular virtualization product with over 50% of
the vote.
Add the VirtualBox repository and install the latest VirtualBox 4.0.6
using the commands below (before this, make sure you remove any
VirtualBox 3.x version you may have installed).To install Virtualbox 4 in terminal:

For some additional features like USB 2.0 support, you will need to install the VirtualBox Extension Pack which you can download from HERE.
Once downloaded, double click the Extension Pack and it should open
with VirtualBox and you can then easily install it. If that doesn’t work
for you, Open VirtualBox and go to File > Preferences and on the
Extensions tab, click the “add” button on the right (first blue diamond)
and browse for the VirtualBox extension pack.
Free VirtualBox Images.
Ready-to-use virtual machines sporting open-source operating systems:http://virtualboxes.org/images/
VirtualBox Homepage:http://www.virtualbox.org/
VirtualBox User’s Guide:http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/UserManual.pdfUpdated: June 10th 2012 (patch for 64-bit Ubuntu systems)Citrix Systems Reciever ICAClient (w/Firefox Plug-in):
Citrix Receiver is a lightweight software client that allows access
to virtual desktops and apps including Windows, Web or SaaS apps on any
PC, Mac, netbook, tablet or smartphone. Works for both 32-bit and 64-bit
version of Ubuntu. You need to download two deb packages to have it
working correctly. You need the installation package for either 32-bit
or 64-bit, and the supporting usb deb package, and then you will need to
also install the USB support deb package as well. You will find both on
the Linux download page on the following link:

Tutorial on how to install Citrix Receiver in Ubuntu:Special Note: There is a error in the deb
installation package that you download from Citrix. If you are running
64-bit Ubuntu 12.04 and trying to install Citrix the installation will
FAIL. Here is how to resolve this problem with the installation package
for 64-bit Ubuntu 12.04 LTS:
1. Install the .deb and let it fail
2. Edit /var/lib/dpkg/info/icaclient.postinst

sudo gedit /var/lib/dpkg/info/icaclient.postinst

3. Replace the line that says

echo $Arch|grep "i[0-9]86" >/dev/null

with

echo $Arch|grep -E "i[0-9]86|x86_64" >/dev/null

4. Run dpkg –configure icaclient

sudo dpkg --configure icaclient

Restart Firefox so the plugin is installed correctly.
I really hope Citrix fixes this problem with their 64-bit
installation deb package for Ubuntu 12.04 soon. And the other thing that
is missing from the installation package is the certificates. Copy the
certificates to the proper directory so Citrix can connect properly with
your Citrix host:

TeamViewer
is a free for non-commercial use, software application for remote
control, desktop sharing, and file transfer between computers, great for
meetings, presentations, tech support and more. It runs on Windows, Mac
OSX, Linux (even though it comes in a .deb or .rpm, it uses Wine which
comes bundled with it) as well as Android or iPhone.
Windows: LogMeIn, GoToMeeting, MS RDChttp://debianhelp.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/teamviewer-7-beta-available-for-linux-remote-desktop-tool/DraftSight
Windows: AutoCAD
Free CAD software* available for Windows®, Mac® and Linux®. A new CAD
product that provides professional CAD users, students and educators
with a better way to create, edit and view DWG files.
Prerequisite installation packages:

Access it through Applications → Office → OpenProjSource Control Management
Windows equivalent : TortoiseSVN
Ubuntu equivalent : RabbitVCSRabbitVCS is a graphical front-end for version
control systems available on Linux. It integrates into file managers to
provide file context menu access to version control repositories. The
project was originally called NautilusSvn, but due to the desire to
support file managers in addition to Nautilus and more version control
systems, it was renamed to RabbitVCS (Version Control System). The
interface was inspired by TortoiseSVN, recognisable by the file manager
shell integration, which is available on Nautilus and Thunar in the case
of RabbitVCS. It can also integrate into Gedit or run independently on
the command line.

Right Click on any folder or file and access the RabbitVCS submenuAdobe AIR (no longer officially supported for Linux
OS) internally uses Adobe Flash Player as the runtime environment, and
ActionScript 3 as the sole programming language. Flash applications must
specifically be built for the Adobe AIR runtime in order to utilize
additional features provided, such as file system integration, native
client extensions, native window/screen integration, taskbar/dock
integration, and hardware integration with connected Accelerometer and
GPS devices. AIR enables applications to work with data in multiple
different ways, including local files, local SQLite databases for which
AIR has inbuilt support, a database server via web services, or the
encrypted local store included with AIR.Special Note:Beginning June 14 2011, Adobe AIR
is no longer supported for desktop Linux distributions. Users can
install and run AIR 2.6 and earlier applications but can’t install or
update to AIR 2.7. The last version to support desktop Linux
distributions is AIR 2.6. AIR 2.6 is available from the AIR Archive.
If you are running a 32-bit version of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS:

If you are having trouble installing Adobe Air on Ubuntu 64-bit you can also try these alternative instructions:http://ubuntuguide.net/install-adobe-air64-bit-ubuntu-12-04-precise/Htop is an interactive system-monitor process-viewer
written for Linux. It is designed to replace the Unix program top. It
shows a frequently updated list of the processes running on a computer,
normally ordered by the amount of CPU usage. Unlike ‘top’, Htop provides
a full list of processes running, instead of the top resource-consuming
processes. Htop uses color and gives visual information about
processor, swap and memory status.
Users often deploy htop in cases where Unix top does not provide
enough information about the systems processes, for example when trying
to find minor memory leaks in applications. Compared to top, it provides
a more convenient, cursor-controlled interface for killing processes.
Windows: Task-manager
Ubuntu: Htop

sudo apt-get install htop

Create your own custom distribution based on your installed Ubuntu OS
Windows Equivalent: Norton Ghost (well kind-of)
Ubuntu Equivalent: Remastersys, ClonezillaRemastersys
is a free and open source program for Debian, Ubuntu-based, or
derivative software systems that can create a customized Live CD/DVD (a
remaster) of Debian and its derivatives. Backup an entire system,
including user data (optional), to an installable Live CD/DVD/USB Flash
Drive with Unetbootin.http://debianhelp.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/how-to-install-and-use-remastersys-in-ubuntu-os/Hard Disk Partitions Manager
Windows equivalent : Norton Partition Magic
Ubuntu equivalent : GParted
GParted is a GTK+ front-end to GNU Parted and the official GNOME Partition Editor application.It
is used for creating, deleting, resizing, moving, checking and copying
partitions, and the file systems on them. This is useful for creating
space for new operating systems (works with Vista / Windows 7 System
& Data partitions), reorganizing disk usage, copying data residing
on hard disks and mirroring one partition with another (disk imaging).
It is useful for tasks such as: creating space for new operating
systems, restructuring disk space to separate user and operating system
data, and copying partitions to enable upgrading to a larger hard disk
drive. Your hard disk drive or USB flash drive can be subdivided into
one or more partitions. GParted enables you to reorganize your disk
partitions while preserving the contents of these partitions.

sudo apt-get install gparted

BleachBit quickly frees disk space and tirelessly
guards your privacy. Free cache, delete cookies, clear Internet history,
shred temporary files, delete logs, and discard junk you didn’t know
was there. Designed for Linux and Windows systems, it wipes clean 90
applications including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Adobe Flash, Google
Chrome, Opera, Safari, and more. I highly recommend installing this on
your system at some point, and making sure to have it automatically run
at system login as a reminder.
Windows equivalent : CCleanerBeyond
simply deleting files, BleachBit includes advanced features such as
shredding files to prevent recovery, wiping free disk space to hide
traces of files deleted by other applications, and vacuuming Firefox to
make it faster. Better than free, BleachBit is open source. If you have a
system that seems to be running slower than normal, it’s always a good
idea to try running Bleachbit to see if it may resolve your performance
issues that you may be experiencing. I personally recommend that heavy
internet users run this at least once or twice a month.

sudo apt-get install bleachbit
sudo bleachbit

Bleachbit Tutorial:can look in the
“edit” menu and there is an item for “Software sources…”.